"I love the improvements - great job!!" BarbaraUSA"Fabulous. More features than I probably will be able to use in a long
while."Brian
KurtzTaylor,
MI"Fantastic! This is a vast improvement over the original
version." Brenda
HarnessUS"Blown away by the incredible features." Woody
LongacreTempe AZ,
USA"Amazing! I LOVE it!"

Colin GreenSydney, Australia"Great improvement of a superb product" Ed
JacksonWoking,
UK"Very impressive! I have been using the SBI site builder, which in itself is
an impressive tool. After seeing the new version of XsitePro though, I can honestly say that it is
second to none, in terms of functionality and features." Cesar
CamposSydney,
Australia"Absolutely amazing! I thought I'd seen the "BEST" website building software
in XSitePro v1 - version 2 just takes website building and developing to a whole new level. Sheer
brilliance!" Alan
HowellsStoke on Trent,
UK"EXCELLENT" DeannaWisconsin, USA"It looks awesome. The best just got better." SimonWiltshire, UK"WOW!!!" Judie
Brown
Washington, USA"I can hardly breathe! There is SO much stuff. I'm choking with
excitement!" Harold
Jaynes
Washington DC"WOW! FAR-OUT! GREAT! TREMENDOUS! This is coming from a web developer, not a
novice! I have so many clients that I have put on hold - waiting for the added features. These
features will save me so much time which will add revenue in my pockets...It's like going from the
horse and buggy to a Ferrari!" Betsy
ParsonsVirginia,
USA"Fantastic!" Andrea
Wilson
Vancouver, Canada"Wow...so many new, exciting and upgraded features this is going to make
website building a really fun project." Connie
UprightVirginia"I think it is a really powerful piece of software ... I am an experienced
marketer, as well as a web designer with FrontPage, DreamWeaver CS-3 and others. You guys have done
it again!" Ettione
StuckeyUSA"Superb improvement on an already excellent tool." James
MitchellUnited
Kingdom"Beyond all
expectations!"
Shush AryaUK"WOW! WOW! WOW! There seems to be everything that anyone will need to create
great content sites. And the easy tools to put video, ssn, rss feeds, and right now my mind is
swimming in awe."Steven R Shover Sr
Texas, USA

Paul Smithson - 28th October 2008
Finding good stock photos and graphics for use in your
marketing can be a real chore and expensive if you don’t know
where to look. There are hundreds of stock photo
agencies, and each one has a different selection, pricing model
and rules about the use of their
photos.

You need to be very careful when reading
the license for any photos you intend to purchase. Some
photos may have very strict usage requirements that might
prohibit the use you have in mind.

There are actually very few stock photo
agencies that are friendly for Internet marketers. Of the
major photo agencies, there are really only about three that
are practical for use by Internet
marketers.

The others are all either too restrictive,
don’t have enough of a selection, or are far too
expensive. Corbis, for example, is far too expensive for
the average Internet marketer. Corbis sometimes charges
several hundred dollars just for ONE image that can be used
only once! This might be fine if you’re putting together a
print brochure that has a long print-run, but it’s just not
practical when an image is for general purpose use on a web
site.

Here are a few options that might be more
appropriate.

IStockPhoto is a very well-known stock
photo agency. They have thousands of photographers that
contribute to their catalog of images, and their prices are
very reasonable.

The quality of the images can vary, but
there are plenty of very good quality photos available.
Their license can be fairly restrictive, but it will allow most
of the uses that Internet marketers would typically
have.

BigStockPhoto is another popular
agency. Not only do they have a large catalog of photos
at very competitive prices, but they also have the most liberal
license of any major stock photo agency. They are the only
major photo supplier that will allow their images to be used in
templates made for distribution. Other agencies don’t
allow their photos to be used in templates, but
BigStockPhotos’s liberal license that allows template use, has
allowed them to capture a fairly large market
share.

Another very useful stock photo resource is
PhotoObjects. This site actually provides images that are
already removed from their backgrounds for use in
designs. This is a big time saver for designers. Cutting
images out of their background is very time-consuming, and
having it already done is an unbelievable help.
PhotoObjects offers memberships at fairly reasonable prices.
They claim to be unlimited, but they actually do limit the
number of pictures you can download each day. The number
is large, so you would probably never go over the limit, but
it’s worth noting.

If you want more than just photos then
clipart.com might be worth looking at. Don’t let the name put
you off as clipart.com has a lot more than just clipart. You’ll
find literally hundreds of thousands of photos, illustrations,
icons, backgrounds, and plenty more besides. Subscriptions are
available lasting from as little as a week up to a whole year.
If you need a lot of images a subscription can prove excellent
value for money, but if you are just after a handful of images
then some of the other options mentioned here might be a better
alternative.

If you’d prefer to have your images
locally, rather than having to access the Internet every time
you need something, then you might want to consider purchasing
a CD of images. Hemera has a line of CDs that can be purchased
at places like Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples, and other
similar stores. They have thousands of photos on them,
and they can work out extremely inexpensive if your image needs
are extensive. However, the quality of the images is generally
quite mediocre and many of the photos look about a decade out
of date. Still, if you need a very large number of lower
resolution pictures of things like flowers and dogs, it can be
a good deal.

Whether it’s an amazing one off photograph
you want for your web site or a huge collection of images for
multiple sites, you are sure to find something that will suit
your needs at the sites mentioned above, but remember to read
the terms and conditions carefully to make sure that it is okay
to use the images for the purpose you require.

About Paul Smithson -
Paul Smithson is the founder of Intellimon and the driving
force behind the best-selling XSitePro web site development
tool. Since graduating in Business Strategy and Direct
Marketing from two of Europe’s leading business schools, Paul
has set up five multi-million dollar companies, one of which is
now owned by the BBC. His areas of expertise include business
strategy, e-commerce, on-line and off-line marketing, software
development, and maximizing the potential of on-line
businesses.

For more information about
this, and many other Internet Marketing-related
topics, visit Paul Smithson's site,
www.xsitepro.com.